Chapter 44 1. From "ridiculous" to "Coke"

At 22:40 Beijing time on June 10, 1998, the first match of the French World Cup "Brazil-Scotland" was held. As usual, hundreds of millions of Chinese fans waited in front of the TV early.As usual, it should be the time when the advertisements of world-class multinational companies that are as radiant as world-class football superstars are overwhelming. This time is an exception.A few seconds before the broadcast was about to start, the TV screen lit up in red: "Very cola, the Chinese own cola", "Very cola, very selective".Around the World Cup venue in Paris, France, 20,000 kilometers away, people could clearly see the familiar "Coca-Cola", with a huge sign and full of pride.

Another "World Cup Competition" between a multinational group and China's two heavyweight beverage giants kicked off.The same is thrilling, and the outcome is also unpredictable. In fact, Wahaha's first bottle of Coke rolled off the production line in Xiasha Industrial Park, Hangzhou as early as March 28 a few months ago.The reason why he chose to make his debut on June 10, besides waiting for the auspicious day of the opening of the World Cup, is another reason is that Zong Qinghou, the head of the family, went to the United States. Zong Qinghou flew to the hometown of Coca-Cola quietly.He took two bottles of Coke with him, one of his own Coca-Cola and the other of Coca-Cola produced in China.After getting off the plane, Zong Qinghou bought another bottle of Coca-Cola produced in the United States.

He tore off the labels of the three bottles of Coke and asked American experts to taste them.Seeing the result of the appraisal, Zong Qinghou smiled. But most Chinese people can't laugh. How can you laugh?Is Coca-Cola easy to mess with?A marketing professor at Harvard University was surprised when he learned that Wahaha was going to produce carbonated drinks. Win the first prize, the second is to be elected President of the United States, and the third is to defeat Coca-Cola." On the Coca-Cola company website, the following text will surely make you awe-inspiring: In 1886, in the backyard of his home in Atlanta, Georgia, pharmacist Pemberton used A half-broken oar and a large iron pot created "Coca-Cola".After 3 years, the Eiffel Tower in France was completed. In 1893, the Coca-Cola Company was established.A century later, the well-known American "Business Weekly" published a survey report on "The World's Most Valuable Brands in 2002", showing that Coca-Cola ranked first, with a brand value of 69.64 billion US dollars, which is higher than that of the next "Microsoft". "$5.55 billion more.Coca-Cola's annual sales exceed 20 billion US dollars. In every corner of the world, consumers of all colors drink an average of 1 billion cups of Coca-Cola every day.Even Pepsi, which ranks second, is not an idler: the empire has a history of 100 years and has more than 600 bottling plants around the world.

Since the second half of the 1980s, the banner of "Chinese people's own cola" has been flying in the north and south of the country several times, but in the end, all that is left behind are the heroic tears of "don't mention the past again". Chongqing "Tianfu Cola": Li Peiquan, general manager of the group, once talked about the revitalization of "National Water" at the National People's Congress and became a news figure. On January 18, 1994, Tianfu Cola had no choice but to put on foreign clothes—it changed to Pepsi’s “husband’s surname”. At the end of the "marriage" ceremony, Li Peiquan quietly put a can of "Tianfu Coca-Cola" in his bag: "There must be some souvenirs for this period of history."

Beijing "Changping Coke": Because of a sudden whim, it hired people to wear promotional ribbons, and stepped on a bicycle to carry "your own Coke" to haunt the streets and alleys.It's a pity that after only one year, it really disappeared at the end of the alley forever. "Shaolin Cola" in Henan: The glory of Shaolin Temple is still there, but Coke has long since become a thing of the past. In Hangzhou, the hometown of "Very Coke", there was also its own Coke, and the name was well-known "China Coke"! After many twists and turns, we found an entrepreneur of "China Coke" who tried to talk about the past, but the old man kept shaking his head: "I'm sorry, I don't want to mention it again." At the end, he proudly added: "At that time, it was approved by the Ministry of Health. Yes, 'China Cola' is the first."

In just a few years, under the powerful acquisitions, mergers and squeezes of Coca-Cola and Pepsi, among the eight major carbonated drinks in China that year, except Jianlibao, which was known as "China's magic water", they were defeated one by one. Seventh Army". The pain is still vivid, and Wahaha's "Very Coke" has risen again. What will be the end waiting for them?There are those who worry, those who doubt, and those who dismiss it.The two most frequently used comments are: "Very cola, very ridiculous", "Very cola, must die". On August 12, 1998, Taiwan's "Business Times" published a special report titled "China's Coca-Cola Market Staged a Local-Western War", and also sent earnest advice in bold: failures are not far behind.

On the podium of Tsinghua University, a professor of the Management Engineering Department of the School of Economics and Management respectfully hypothesized three futures for the nascent Coca-Cola: If the market share of Very Coke can exceed that of Coca-Cola, it will be a huge success; if it can play a brand name and fight with Coca-Cola for 10-15 years, it will also be a success. Amidst the uproar, Wahaha's "Very Coke" embarked on a very journey. Four years have passed, and Coca-Cola has not been out of the market as ridiculously as some people expected. Please see the following data:

1998: Sales of Wahaha's very series of carbonated beverages, with very cola as the main body, sold 73,800 tons.In the same year, the sales of Coca-Cola carbonated drinks were 1.94 million tons, and the Pepsi series carbonated drinks were 760,000 tons; 1999: 399,000 tons of Coca-Cola, 2.04 million tons of Coca-Cola, and 910,000 tons of Pepsi; 2000: 480,000 tons of Coke, 2.18 million tons of Coca-Cola, and 1.09 million tons of Pepsi; 2001: Very Coke sold 595,000 tons, approaching Pepsi increasingly.And in the same year, the total output of Wahaha series of beverages, including Super Coke, reached 2.5 million tons, which was the first time to tie the total volume of Coca-Cola in the Chinese market.Some experts predict that by 2004, the sales volume of Very Coke will probably surpass that of Pepsi.In the Chinese cola market, where two heroes have always been competing for hegemony and idlers are not allowed to enter, the pattern of three pillars has gradually emerged.

In the first year of 2002, the sales of Wahaha’s special series of carbonated drinks continued to grow significantly, far higher than the growth rate of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Customers with cash waiting to pick up the goods lined up, and sales in all markets were brisk.In Hunan, Xinjiang, Jiangxi, and the three northeastern provinces, Coca-Cola has become a leading local brand, with a market share even higher than that of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Very Coke VS Coca-Cola It was also unexpected that after 1999, the counterfeit products of Coca-Cola by large and small enterprises in Shandong, Zhejiang, Anhui, Henan, Xinjiang, Ningxia and other provinces and regions also increased rapidly, emerging in endlessly. There are as many as 27 illegal enterprises.A consumer in Feicheng, Shandong who signed "a Chinese who supports you" wrote angrily in a letter to Wahaha: "'Very Cola' is the most successful product for Chinese manufacturers to open up the cola market, and it has won the breath of Chinese people. But now 'Li Gui' is rampant in the market everywhere, they are like moths eroding 'Very Coke'. I am really sad, I don't want to see the Chinese people who have just raised their waists being knocked down by the Chinese themselves. Already!"

The person in charge of the anti-counterfeiting office of Wahaha Group said with a wry smile that due to the prosperity of Coke, we were prepared for counterfeiting and infringement, but we did not expect such a strong momentum.Some of these companies called "Feidai Coke", "Feixue Coke", "Feishuang Coke", "Feita Coke" and so on to deceive the eyes; some simply faked "Very Coke" in an attempt to follow suit. Divide a spoonful. In retrospect, the people of Wahaha were not clear about the difficulty of this battle of the century with foreign cola.From children's nutrient solution, fruit milk, eight-treasure porridge to drinking water, Wahaha has expanded and extended with a single "Wahaha" brand, conquering the city and conquering land. Only carbonated beverages have launched a separate "very" brand. Zong Qinghou is well aware of its strength opponent's weight.According to reports, the brand name "Very Cola" was created by employees of Wahaha Group, and Zong Qinghou caught it right away.The only reasonable explanation for this is that, in Zong Qinghou's mind, it was indeed an "extraordinary move" to start "Chinese people's own Coke".

We can say that the most eye-catching venture in Wahaha's growth so far is the launch of Very Coke. At that time, nine out of ten friends advised Zong Qinghou to think twice.In fact, Wahaha had a plan to produce carbonated drinks as early as 1995. However, Zong Qinghou finally gave up after repeated arguments.In 1998, the old story was brought up again.Zong Qinghou described to us the basis for his decision-making in several aspects: One is the attractive market space.According to statistics, half of the total beverage sales in the world are carbonated beverages, and half of the carbonated beverages are cola.In 1997, before the advent of Very Coke, carbonated drinks in China accounted for about 30% of the total beverage market.In that year, the country produced a total of 1.36 million tons of cola (of which Coca-Cola and Pepsi accounted for about 80%), accounting for only 27% of the sales volume of carbonated drinks.The market space is huge and the profit margin is huge.What is enough to verify this inference is that since the early 1980s, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have successively seized the Chinese mainland market for nearly 20 years, and the average annual sales growth rate of Coca-Cola and Pepsi has reached more than 30% from a high starting point. The Chinese market is the fastest growing and most promising market.I'm afraid there is no strong person who doesn't want to touch this tempting piece of cheese. The second is the market structure.Since the first half of the 1990s, when Coca-Cola and Pepsi "flooded the seven armies", the domestic carbonated beverage industry was almost completely wiped out, and all enterprises were afraid of this field.However, in many cases, the most dangerous place is precisely where the aquatic plants are the most abundant.It is this kind of market structure that raises the barriers to entry, giving Wahaha the courage to enter the market without worrying about the harassment of small brands. The third is marketing advantage. Around 1998, Wahaha had basically established a multi-variety distribution product structure and a joint marketing structure. It could quickly spread Coca-Cola through distribution, and hundreds of millions of yuan in TV advertisements were used for promotion. Provides a strong firepower guarantee.In addition, Wahaha's purified water and Coke have the consumption characteristics of interlaced consumption.Therefore, in terms of competitiveness and marketing costs, Wahaha is probably the only domestic beverage company that has the best chance of entering the field of carbonated beverages. The fourth is marketing space.Although Coca-Cola and Pepsi have very strong marketing capabilities, they implement a divide-and-conquer marketing policy in China—the local bottling branches complete the production and sales in various markets. This model saves transportation costs, but it is not conducive to national unification. marketing.Secondly, the "pre-sale system" model of Two Oceans Coke has achieved remarkable results in large and medium-sized cities, but it has not been able to penetrate the urban market.On the contrary, Wahaha's marketing advantages are mainly concentrated in the vast urban market. The 15-year-old Wahaha has created a series of dazzling miracles.From a small school-run workshop with only 3 employees and a loan of 140,000 yuan to the number one giant in China's food and beverage industry, Zong Qinghou single-handedly gave birth to this "Wahaha myth".But Zong Qinghou never believed in myths.Similarly, in this round of very enjoyable "adventurous jumps", what supports him is definitely not the gamble mentality of breaking the boat.Zong Qinghou knows that Chinese enterprises have moved farther and farther away from the era when success can be achieved by a single gamble. To do business in an era of declining myths depends on strength, excellent vision and skilled skills. . Half a year after Very Coke was born, a reporter from a well-known Hong Kong media interviewed Zong Qinghou and talked about the three futures of Very Coke assumed by the professor at Tsinghua University.Zong Qinghou replied with a leisurely smile: "I don't think it will be wiped out like the first generation of Coke. The worst fate of Very Coke is the third. I feel that judging from the current situation It won’t be the third type, at least it can be equally divided and occupy a certain market share. This step is absolutely achievable.”